Paris prosecutor: UN slowed probe of troops sex-abuse claims

Associated Press ^ | May 7, 2015 11:22 AM EDT

[Olog-hai]

The “U.N. hierarchy” rejected French efforts to hear from the author of U.N. report alleging that French soldiers sexually abused six children in the Central African Republic, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Thursday.

The revelation accompanied word that French authorities had opened a formal judicial inquiry into the case that the Paris prosecutors’ office knew about in July, but was made public only last week following a report in a British newspaper, the Guardian.

Independent judges will now take over the case from the prosecutor’s office, an acknowledgment of the seriousness and complexity of the accusations that have sparked international dismay and led to the suspension of a U.N. official who leaked the U.N. claims. …